2010 Plan needs Green Jobs

[Towntalk]

I agree that the opportunity for new jobs based on Green are many, and I also agree that there are enormous opportunities for YSU. My gripe is with the never ending regulations that the government slaps on industry via the Federal Register which you can link to at my web site.

Every time a businessman turns around, he has to deal with new regulations that never saw the light of day in the halls of Congress.

Here is how it works:

Step 1. An agency or department drafts a new regulation.
Step 2. Congress has 30 days to respond after publication in the Federal Register.
Step 3. After 30 or 60 days, absent Congressional response, the new regulation goes into effect.

How many Congressmen ever crack the pages of the Federal Register? Too few to have any real impact. Only if a new regulation is so controversial that it generates mail to the Congressman or Senator's office will they even review the new regulation.

As for the business community, how many subscribe to the Federal Register? Again, precious few, so they have no time to respond before they get a notice in the mail from the department or agency.

Again, while the GPO sends the print media copies of the Congressional Record on a daily basis, they do not send them copies of the Federal Register unless the paper actually subscribes to it.

[irishbobcat]

Towntalk:

I do believe it is up to state and federal leaders to work with valley leaders to search and bring Green-Collar jobs to this area.

We have the factory space, we have the work force, we can have the post-secondary education available for training, and we should also have a vision for the future.

I can drive down almost any street in the valley and see a TV dish on a roof....why can't one day we see  2 to 3 solar panels on a roof?

Or a small wind turbine? I know we can't depend upon total alternative energy for this area.... but wouldn't it be nice to see the Light up Youngstown Campaign actually use solar power lights like they do in Austria that can go 5-6 days on cloudy days and still provide light for their downtown area just by having one day a week of sunshine to charge the solar batteries for a week?

Sincerely,

Dennis Spisak
Independent Green Candidate for State Representative-60th District

[Towntalk]

Is it really the job of government to create jobs? Heck, the government we have now can't even fight a good war, and look at their less than stellar accomplishments in the hurricane ravished regions of the south.

More to the point, if government would step aside and allow free enterprise do what it does best, and with less regulation, the doors would be opened wide to folks who want to start up Green jobs.

The trouble is that state and federal bureaucrats are forever sticking their noses where they do not belong while the legislators are going around with their hands out to any lobbiest that has more cash than reason to spread around.

[irishbobcat]

2010 Plan needs Green Jobs

Press Release- February 10,2008

Campaign Site: HTTP://votespisak.tripod.com

Independent Green Candidate for State Representative for the 60th District Dennis Spisak announced today that the Youngstown 2010 plan couldn't succeed without the creation of Green-Collar Jobs for the valley.

"The 2010 plan is already out of date because it fails to mention of Green Collar jobs for the 60th District." Said Spisak. "Organizations such as the Apollo Alliance, Ella Baker Center, Workforce Alliance, Center for American Progress, Sustainable South Bronx, Center on Wisconsin Strategy, 1Sky, Energy Action Coalition, Green For All, and many more organizations across the country have come to the conclusion that green collar jobs are vital for offering the working class and middle class a better future.
Spisak says Green Collar jobs can help the Youngstown 2010 plan by providing the following benefits to the 60th District:

Green-Collar Jobs will rebuild a Strong Middle Class:

Green-collar jobs are good jobs. Like blue-collar jobs, green-collar jobs pay family wages and provide opportunities for advancement along a career track of increasing skills and wages.

Green-Collar Jobs Provide a Pathway out of Poverty:

Most green-collar jobs are middle-skill jobs requiring more education than high school, but less than a four-year degree -- and are well within reach for lower-skilled and low-income workers as long as they have access to effective training programs and appropriate supports. We must ensure that all green-collar jobs strategies provide opportunities for low-income people to take the first step on a pathway from poverty to economic self-sufficiency. Adding a community college to the area to provide training could provide these courses.


Green-Collar Jobs Require Some New Skills:

The green economy demands workers with new skill sets. Some green collar jobs -- say renewable energy technicians -- are brand new. But even more are existing jobs that are being transformed as industries transition to a clean energy economy: computer control operators who can cut steel for wind towers as well as for submarines; or mechanics who can fix an electric engine as well as an internal combustion engine. We need identify the specific skills the green economy demands. Then we need to invest in creating new training programs and retooling existing training programs to meet the demand.

Green-Collar jobs tend to be Local Jobs:

Much of the work we have to do to green our economy involves transforming the places that we live and work and the way we get around. These jobs are difficult or impossible to offshore. For instance, you can't pick up a house, send it to China to have solar panels installed, and have it shipped back. In addition, one of the major sources of manufacturing jobs -- a sector that has been extensively off-shored -- are components parts for wind towers and turbines. Because of their size and related high transportation costs, they are most cost-effectively produced as near as possible to wind-farm sites. Cities and communities should begin thinking now about ways their green strategies can also create local jobs.

Green-Collar Jobs Strengthens Urban and Rural Communities:

Urban and rural America have both been negatively impacted over the past decades by a failure to invest in their growth -- green-collar jobs provide an opportunity to reclaim these areas for the benefit of local residents. From new transit spending
and energy audits in inner cities to windmills and biomass in our nation's heartland, green jobs mean a reinvestment in the communities hardest hit in recent decades.

Green-Collar Jobs Can Recreate City Neighborhoods:

When steel was king back in the 40's. 50's, and 60's, we had strong neighborhoods in the Mahoning Valley. By creating Alternative energy companies and factories, we can restore working class neighborhoods to the valley.
Green-collar workers are installing solar panels, retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient, constructing transit lines, refining waste oil into biodiesel, erecting wind farms, repairing hybrid cars, building green rooftops, planting trees, and so much more. And they are doing it today. There are already many green-collar jobs in America. But there could be so many more if we focus our economic strategies on growing a green economy.

Spisak concludes by saying "It's time for the 60th District to begin looking at becoming the Alternative Energy Giant for Alternative Energy Jobs and Factories. Only then can we say we have a future plan in place to make the 60th District a better place to live in the 21st Century."